Some life changing thoughts spring from this weeks Scripture in Luke 3. Jesus came to receive the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins from John the Baptist. Stop, and take that in to your mind and ponder that. Jesus, the perfectly righteous Son of God, born of God, sinless Man, in no need of forgiveness or repentance gets in the baptism line with every other sinner in the world and says baptize me with the same baptism as the sinners.

Once again, here is a beautiful picture of the humiliation and submission of Jesus Christ the Son of God. In Matthew 3, Jesus says that He wants John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins “to fulfill all righteousness.” God told John the Baptist to tell everybody to get ready for Jesus by living a life of perpetual repentance. God expected those who called upon Him as their God to be baptized for the repentance of Sins and so Jesus obeyed the Father’s expectations for mankind. Jesus desired to fulfill every righteous expectation that God the Father had for His people. Jesus lived every moment of His life to fulfill the righteous requirements of His Father so that we would be considered righteous in His Father’s eyes. Salvation was not just secured on the cross but by every obedient moment of Jesus’ life. Every moment of every day for the previous thirty years of Jesus’ life was lived fulfilling our righteous requirements because we were not able to fulfill the righteous requirements of God. That is love! That is submission. That is humility. That is obedience. Jesus lived for our salvation as much as He died for our salvation.

Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist is the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry on the Earth. Then for the next three years He continued to fulfill every righteous requirement for us even unto death. So, now we can say like Paul did in 2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake He (the Father) made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God. Thank you Jesus!

The very first day of Jesus public ministry was Him showing the world that He identified with us as our Savior and as our representative. Thank you Jesus for living every day for our salvation so that we might become the righteousness of God. In Christ you are the righteousness of God. Do you believe that? What heart emotions towards God does that truth produce? Let these truths in Luke 3, change us and fuel our hearts for worship daily.